The following compiles fine in my Eclipse:

final int j = 1/0;
// compiles fine!!!
// throws ArithmeticException: / by zero at run-time

Java prevents many "dumb code" from even compiling in the first place (e.g. "Five" instanceof Number doesn't compile!), so the fact this didn't even generate as much as a warning was very surprising to me. The intrigue deepens when you consider the fact that constant expressions are allowed to be optimized at compile time:

public class Div0 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        final int i = 2+3;
        final int j = 1/0;
        final int k = 9/2;
    }
}

Compiled in Eclipse, the above snippet generates the following bytecode (javap -c Div0)

Compiled from "Div0.java"
public class Div0 extends java.lang.Object{
public Div0();
  Code:
   0:   aload_0
   1:   invokespecial   #8; //Method java/lang/Object."<init>":()V
   4:   return

public static void main(java.lang.String[]);
  Code:
   0:   iconst_5
   1:   istore_1      // "i = 5;"
   2:   iconst_1
   3:   iconst_0
   4:   idiv
   5:   istore_2      // "j = 1/0;"
   6:   iconst_4
   7:   istore_3      // "k = 4;"
   8:   return

}

As you can see, the i and k assignments are optimized as compile-time constants, but the division by 0 (which must've been detectable at compile-time) is simply compiled as is.

javac 1.6.0_17 behaves even more strangely, compiling silently but excising the assignments to i and k completely out of the bytecode (probably because it determined that they're not used anywhere) but leaving the 1/0 intact (since removing it would cause an entirely different program semantics).

So the questions are:

• Is 1/0 actually a legal Java expression that should compile anytime anywhere?
  • What does JLS say about it?
• If this is legal, is there a good reason for it?
  • What good could this possibly serve?